DIY Lightbox Play

Have I mentioned how much I love to play?

I am planning a little learning unit all about the moon to do with my little girls this month because of the mid autumn moon festival, and I knew this kind of light box would compliment our unit perfectly.  It was a rainy night when I introduced it for the first time.  Thank goodness I had it finished because rainy nights can be a killer as we are stuck inside.

 I set out some translucent jars and bouncy balls on the box initially.  The girls moved the jars, unscrewed the lids, rolled the balls, and put the balls inside the jars for a long, long time while the light shined through.

 Then I remembered an old transparency set I had from my teaching days, and set out the shapes for them to explore.  Anna "wrote" her name.

 They had great fun exploring the shapes and colors.

 Is she not so cute?

 The glow of the light made creating so much more fun!

 Before long, houses were being created, and shapes were being named.

Jilly even came down off her trapeze bar that is mounted to the ceiling in our playroom to join in.

Making this box was so easy, and we have continued to play with it.  I took a 60 quart clear under bed clear storage container that I had laying around to make our box.  Then I bought a 16 ft string of rope lights that I also purchased at Walmart for $12.00.  To assemble the box, I had to drill a hole in the side of the storage container so that the light cord could come out the side in order to plug it in.  Once the hole was drilled, I strung the lights throughout the box, put the cord through the hole, and plugged it in.  I used some "spider web" Halloween decorations on top of my light in the box to diffuse the lights.  You could use colored tissue paper, parchment paper, or a number of things to change the light if you want to experiment.  I just had this webbing on hand, and so I threw it in there.  This project cost less than $15 to make because I had many of the items on hand, and the container stores easily under the couch in our playroom. I love it and so did the girls!